Ceramics and History in the Iron Age of North Cameroon

Abstract

This study is based on the Iron Age ceramics of North Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria dating from the first to sixteenth century A.D.This is an area generally believed to have gone through myriad political, social, and economic changes during the Iron Age. However, I have demonstrated an extraordinary degree of continuity in the ceramics of the North Cameroonian part of the study area that contrasts with the variability that might be expected on the basis of the historical record for the zone lying a short distance to the north. I also for the first time established precise comparisons between the ceramics of the study area and the nearest well-docu- mented materials from Daima in Nigerian Borno.